Whitewash.

From the AP:

     Among the Republican Party's 2,380 delegates gathered in St. Paul, only 36 are African Americans and very few other visible minorities were to be found on the convention floor.

     This is the first time in 40 years that there has been such a weak representation of minorities at a major political party convention, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

     For the past six years there has not been a single black Republican governor, senator or representative in the US Congress.

     Blacks comprise 12.4 percent of the US population while 14.8 percent are Hispanics, according to the most recent census data.

     By comparison, nearly a quarter of Democratic delegates at the party's convention in Denver last month -- some 1,087 -- were black.

     Democrats have one black senator -- presidential nominee Barack Obama -- and 42 representatives in Congress.

     Lily-white GOP mouthpieces--including new hard-right poster girl Sarah Palin--mocked Barack Obama's background as a community organizer in Chicago, in a concerted show of ignorance, intolerance, and contempt. 

From "Community Organizers Fight Back":

     “Community organizers work in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the failing economy,” said John Raskin, founder of Community Organizers of America and a community organizer on the West Side of Manhattan. “The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we’re trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, we wouldn’t need community organizers. But I work with people who are getting evicted from their only home. If John McCain and the Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to make fun of community organizers like me.”

     Though many people are unfamiliar with community organizing, the job is both straightforward and vital: community organizers work with families who are struggling–because of low wages, poor health coverage, unaffordable housing, and other community problems–so that collectively, they can fix those problems and make government respond to their day-to-day concerns. Organizers knock on doors, attend community meetings, visit churches and synagogues and mosques, and work with unions and civic groups and block associations to help ordinary people build power and counter the influence of self-interested insiders and highly paid lobbyists at all levels of government.   

     Considering Wasilla, Alaska's meth problem--discussed in an earlier post--perhaps Sarah Palin could have used some community organizers to help in her old neighborhood.

     She didn't seem to do much about it...